This invention relates to supermarket appliances and more particularly to apparatus for cutting the skin of a piece of fruit so it can be peeled, and at the same time coring the fruit.
A coring appliance is often used for preparing fruit for displays in supermarkets, or for making fruit baskets or the like. Such an appliance is useful, for example, with fruits such as pineapples. One appliance of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,397 to Healy. It has been found that for display purposes, a square or rectangular core of fruit is often more appealing to the eye than a circular shaped core. Accordingly, if an appliance making a circular core is used, the fruit must be further trimmed to provide a rectangular shape. This is both time consuming and costly. At the same time, it has also been found that the way in which the skin of the fruit is cut, to facilitate peeling the fruit, can also be improved. It has also been found that when the appliance has three or more peel cutting blades, the appliance is easier to operate to core and peel a piece of fruit.